Nominations for the architecture award have 33 buildings, with private ones predominating

Prague - A high predominance of private investments over public ones and the largest representation of family houses characterize the nominations for the Czech Architecture Award. The organizing Czech Chamber of Architects announced today 33 buildings selected by the international jury from 145 works submitted for the third year of the national award. Most of the nominated buildings are from Prague. Two studios are among the finalists, each having two realizations in the competition - last year's finalist studio ADR and studio Stempel & Tesař architects. The results will be announced by the organizers on November 19.

ADR was in the finals last year with the Javornická distillery, a reconstructed and completed farmstead from the 19th century. This year, they are nominated for Pivovar Trautenberk in Malá Úpa and Bouda Černá Voda in Horní Malá Úpa. The microbrewery was created by reconstructing the original Tippelt's lodge, later known as Hotel Družba, which notably cleaned the building from 20th-century renovations. Černá Voda is a new small mountain hut named after the local stream, a wooden structure blending into the mountain landscape.

Stempel & Tesař architects also have two representatives - the conversion of a terraced house from the 1970s in Prague's Hanspaulka and the renovation and conversion of a mill in Slapy into residential use. In Prague, the inconspicuous house, whose original appearance is still held by the adjacent buildings, received a red brick cladding, a façade mostly glazed towards the garden, and a dining room spanning two floors that addresses very low room heights.

In the case of the old mill, the architects stated that the main task was to bring air and light into the depths of the house. "However, no one wanted to disturb the gable, so we amputated part of the body," the authors stated. They executed a sort of longitudinal cut through the entire house, creating a glazed patio through which sunlight entered the interior. The main gable was exposed from both sides, and the flow of fresh air freed it from moisture. The entire structure and its elements were otherwise painstakingly reconstructed.

The Czech Chamber of Architects long-term points out that public institutions in the country are only a minority in terms of construction orders. Among the nominations in the competition, there are only seven public buildings out of 33. Two of the nominated realizations from public sources were created based on architectural competitions with confirmation of regularity from the Chamber of Architects. These include Kinonekino in Planá, a reconstruction of a cinema from the 1950s by studio Xtopix, and the revitalization of the Loučná River waterfront in Litomyšl by the offices of Rusina Frei architects and Atelier Partero.

This time, the most nominated buildings are in Prague, totaling eight. Another five are in the Central Bohemian region. With four works, the South Moravian region comes in third, which had the most nominations last year. The Hradec Králové and Olomouc regions follow, each with three realizations. The Plzeň, Vysočina, Moravian-Silesian, and Zlín regions represent two works each. The Karlovy Vary and Pardubice regions have one representative each.